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Proposed Research
The evidence supports a form of constrained constitution: universal computational constraints (integer-ratio biases, oscillatory entrainment mechanisms) provide the processing format, while developmental exposure determines categorical content in ways that resist adult restructuring. This is stronger than pure modulation but weaker than radical constitution. Therefore, I propose the following experimental program to verify the validity of this position:
Pilot Study, involving both Western adults, non-Western drummers and non-trained baseline group, to establish differences on implicit measures. The baseline assessment would look into rhythm priors (same as Jacoby's paradigm), behavioral accuracy on non-Western rhythms, with EEG measures for both culturally familiar and non-familiar rhythmic patterns. If baseline implicit measures show large group differences (d > 0.8), this establishes that cultural exposure produces substantial processing differences worth investigating through training. If baseline differences are small, the study lacks the necessary starting conditions.
Training study, involving 30 Western participants receive 50 hours of jembe training over few months. Behavioral and neural measures are assessed before and after training. The interpretation criteria are as follows. Constitution is supported if Western participants achieve behavioral accuracy comparable to non-western baseline (within 1 SD) but continue to show implicit processing differences (oscillatory phase-locking or MMN) exceeding d = 0.5, which would indicate that explicit performance can converge while underlying processing architecture remains culturally shaped. Modulation is supported if, wherever behavioral accuracy converges, implicit measures also converge (d < 0.3), indicating that training restructures processing at all levels, consistent with universal mechanisms operating over different inputs.
Developmental extension, which tracks the same infants longitudinally from 6 to 24 months in both Western and non-Western contexts, using EEG paradigms adapted for infant participants. The goal is to identify precisely when culture-specific implicit signatures emerge during development. If constitution is correct, we should observe a transition point, likely concurrent with the perceptual narrowing documented by Hannon and Trehub, after which infant neural responses begin to diverge along culture-specific lines. This would establish not only that cultural differences exist but when they become architecturally fixed.
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